Archive for February, 2014

If you have ever held a party in your house, you know the difficulties that arise when cleaning the carpet and rugs after visitors have left. When the carpet and rugs are dirty, there are two options, either you call a carpet cleaner or rug doctor, or you start cleaning yourself. There are tricks that help to accomplish this.

Take time to vacuum

When you have visitors, there are chances that they will leave dirt, like soil on your carpet. Removing the dirt from the carpet surface, before it gets trapped is important. Use repetitive and slow motion strokes with your vacuum cleaner that are overlapping. Make sure you are going to the edges where dirt tends to accumulate. Make sure vacuuming is done at least once a week. However, if you have visitors, you can vacuum the next day.

Treat the stains well

Most of the carpets bought locally are manufactured in the US. This means they are finished for stain resistance. There are cases when people stain the carpet using ice cream drips, tea drips and others. This leaves your carpet with marks that make it look awkward. So, whenever the carpet is stained, make sure that you are cleaning the spot right away. Scoop the solids from the carpet immediately and then blot the stain liquids using a towel. Use the best stain removal technique for each stain.

Use cleansers

Some stains are hard to clean, and one needs to use cleaning agents and other washing liquids. These solutions work on carpet fibers to remove dirt. After cleaning the carpet with solutions, make sure that the area is rinsed using warm water. Dry the carpet to prevent odor.

Steam cleaning

A good way you can clean the carpet is to use steam cleaning where the homeowner uses high pressure vacuuming and detergents. You can either rent a machine if you do not have it or call a professional cleaning company. A carpet cleaning solutions is also used to make sure that rugs are left with a clean smell. Steam cleaning is the best method for emergency cleaning.

Although you can do the cleaning at home by yourself, it is always better to call a cleaning company in your area as they generally have the skills and trained staff that can help to remove the hard to crack dirt from your carpet within a few minutes. Before hiring the rug doctor, make sure that you are carrying out research about the services offered and reading client reviews.

A surprise snowstorm can wreak a lot of havoc on an unprepared community. Slippery driveways and walkways can cause injuries, and pulled muscles aren’t an uncommon occurrence during particularly heavy snows. With a little preparation and thought, though, a snowfall can stop being a nuisance and start being a winter wonderland.

First and foremost, make sure to have the proper equipment for cleaning out the snow. At minimum, make sure to have a good snow shovel and a bag of rock salt handy. Using a different kind of shovel can damage the concrete or stone underneath, and depending on the shovel it could even cause the person shoveling to injure themselves. Rock salt melts snow and ice, but it also provides traction on slippery surfaces. If rock salt isn’t available, biodegradable kitty litter or coarse sand can do half the job, making walkways and drives less slippery even if they can’t melt the snow away.

Watch the snow when it starts to fall, and gauge how much has collected. Shovel as soon as it stops snowing, or when the snow reaches 2-3 inches – even if it’s still snowing. It’s much easier to shovel three inches of snow twice than six inches once. Don’t be afraid to go out in the snow, unless conditions are blizzard-like or it’s so cold it’s dangerous to be outside for any reason.

Start shoveling at the door and shovel away so as not to walk on the snow before removing it. Walking on the snow will pack it down, making it difficult to remove cleanly. For wide areas like a driveway, shovel a path into the center, then work outward to both sides so the mounds of snow on either side don’t get too deep. Lift the snow with your legs and arms to keep from injuring the back, and never put so much snow on the shovel that it’s difficult to move.

Wait to salt the area until the snow is completely done falling, and shovel everything before it’s salted. Salt melts snow, but only a small amount. If an area is salted and the snow melts, but then a large amount of the white stuff piles on top of it, it could refreeze the water and create a dangerous layer of ice hidden under the new snowfall. Clear everything with a shovel and then spread the salt liberally to clear up that pesky, thin layer left over.

If you are not able to do it yourself, you can always hire someone to do the snow plowing with little effort from HireContractor.com.

A surprise snowstorm is a nuisance, but it doesn’t have to be unmanageable. Stay calm and handle it like any other chore – think raking leaves or mowing the lawn – and it won’t even be a problem.